Sonia tells Karunanidhi she shares his concern about Lankan Tamils

Chennai: Stating that she shared the concerns of DMK chief M Karunanidhi regarding Sri Lankan Tamils issue, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has told him that she “shall take up the matter” with the External Affairs Minister. “I share your concern regarding the disturbing developments in Sri Lanka vis-a-vis the Tamils. I shall take up the matter with the Minister of External Affairs (Salman Khurshid),” she said in her January 30, 2013 letter to Karunanidhi. The Congress President’s response to a January 19, 2013 letter by Karunanidhi was posted on DMK leader’s page in micro-blogging site Twitter.

In identical letters to Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi, whose DMK is a key constituent of ruling UPA, had claimed Tamils in Sri Lanka were living in an “oppressive environment,” and sought the Centre’s intervention to “stop this atrocity,” as India had a “moral obligation” to do so.

A TESO meeting presided by Karunanidhi also resolved to hold a national conference in Delhi in March to highlight the ‘sufferings and difficulties’ faced by Lankan Tamils, proposing to invite all political leaders, a release said.

Holding Rajapakse instrumental for the sufferings of the ethnic minority in the island nation, TESO resolved that Tamils in India will never accept his visit to the country.

“He considers India’s hand of friendship and its sense of hospitality as its weakness. Central government should not encourage his visit to India,” it said.

The Lankan President is scheduled to arrive here soon on a visit to Bodh Gaya and Tirupati.

Among others, the meeting asked India to support a US-sponsored Sri Lanka specific reoslution in the United Nations Human Rights Council next month. MM